Abstract

The first station of the LongWavelength Array, called “LWA1”, is working as a beamforming and imaging array, and has begun scientific operations as a stand-alone instrument with collecting area roughly equivalent to a 100m dish. The LWA1 images the sky in realtime using the transient buer - narrowband (TBN) system which is operational with 260 dipoles, and a bandwidth of 70 kHz. The LWA1 can also form up to 4 beams on the sky simultaneously with 16 MHz bandwidth in each of two tunings and full polarization. Early results include observations of pulsars, the Sun, Jupiter, meteors and ionospheric phenomena. Over 50 projects are in progress, including investigations into the “dark ages” using redshifted hydrogen. The LWA1 is supported by NSF as a University Radio Observatory and as such is open for use by the international community.

http://lwa.unm.edu/